Samantha couldn't believe how easy it was to be around Sirius. Now that the Potter family had all more or less accepted that they were together, Sirius and Samantha spent nearly every waking moment together, and quite a few of the sleeping ones as well. They kissed, they held each other, and they snuggled incessantly. Sirius even took her for a ride on his motorbike once, although after the fact she wished he hadn't. He expected her to love it, when in truth it had absolutely terrified her. So she lied to him, swearing to herself to always have excuses ready if he wanted to go again.

They went to Diagon Alley with Mr. and Mrs. Potter on a beautiful, sunny afternoon in August. As Samantha had never been to Diagon Alley before (in her memory) she found the entire experience as delightful and exciting as any first year would, and Sirius laughed and laughed, saying how adorable it was. That is, until Mrs. Potter reminded him that just a few years ago, that had been him. Suddenly, he stopped laughing, and refused to use the word "adorable".

Samantha didn't think she would ever get over the anxiety caused by Flooing, but as it was the only way to get her school shopping done, she did it without too much complaining. Sirius came out of the grate at the pub only seconds after her, and she felt much better about the whole thing as he helped her brush off the soot. James and his parents followed soon after, and they headed off to Madam Malkin's, because James and Sirius were apparently growing like weeds, according to Mrs. Potter, and would need new school robes, and she ought to get something nice for Samantha, as it was, supposedly, tradition. Samantha ached to hold Sirius's hand, but they couldn't. They were meeting Remus and Peter at some point during the day, and in any case, this was a public place. Anything they did could make its way back to the wrong people, if it wasn't seen by the wrong people to begin with.

They stepped into the small shop and there was someone they apparently didn't want to see, because Sirius tensed and James's eyes narrowed, but Mrs. Potter just pushed them further into the shop with the coldest, most regal air about her Samantha had ever seen. The woman standing with a boy around their age must not be one of Mrs. Potter's favorite people, to be sure.

Samantha looked them over. There was something familiar about both of them, their high cheekbones, their dark hair… their eyes… their gray eyes. She bit her lip to hide the gasp that threatened to escape her. These must be Sirius's family. She would know those eyes anywhere.

"Ah, Mrs. Potter!" said the woman who appeared to be the shop's owner. "James seems to have grown quite a bit since last year! New school robes, then?"

"Yes, for both of the boys, and a set of new dress robes for Samantha."

"Of course," said the kindly woman, bowing deferentially to Mrs. Potter, whose eyes were still fixed on the gray ones of Mrs. Black.

"Walburga," said Mrs. Potter stiffly.

"Theodora," said Mrs. Black with a coldness that seemed to lower the temperature in the room by about three degrees. Samantha actually shivered, and immediately wished she hadn't. The sudden movement drew Mrs. Black's attention to her, and as soon as she had it she wished she could get rid of it. Mrs. Black's attention was both exhausting and disconcerting.

"Ah, Miss Collins," she said. "I'm afraid I missed you at the last function. Your parents said you were there, however, and I recall hearing you announced…"

"I was with my fiancé," Samantha in her best pureblood voice, the one Sirius had made her practice for the people who were her parents.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Avery," said Mrs. Black coldly. "Such a shame that you won't be welcomed into our family after all. I was very much looking forward to you as a daughter-in-law."

"I'm very sorry to disappoint," she said levelly, unsure of exactly how she ought to act. Sirius was tensing beside her.

"Oh, don't be, dear," said Mrs. Black. "It's not your fault my former son doesn't know what's good for him."

"I think that will be all, Walburga," said Mrs. Potter snappishly. "Surely you and Regulus have other things to be doing. We won't keep you."

"Naturally," said Mrs. Black, but not turning to go. Instead, she drew herself up to her full height and the two women met their eyes firmly for several moments before Mrs. Black turned up her nose and marched Regulus out of the shop. Samantha couldn't help but notice, as he went, that he looked distinctly worried and uncomfortable, something that looking incredibly out of place on his pureblooded features.

Samantha shivered again, and Sirius gave her a quick hug, watching the windows to make sure nobody could see them.

"Sorry you had to meet them like that," said Sirius. "You didn't like them much before, either."

"Nobody likes Walburga," hissed Mrs. Potter furiously, "not even her worthless husband."

"On the contrary, Mum," said Sirius bitterly, "the house-elf worships her."

James snorted.

"Yeah, but your house-elf's life ambition is to be beheaded in old age and have his head put on the wall. He's clearly not the best judge of character or anything."

"Yes, well," said Sirius with a tight smirk, "I was merely clearing the facts."

"She actually seemed upset she wasn't getting me as a daughter-in-law," said Samantha quietly.

"Oh, I expect she is," mused Sirius as Madam Malkin led him to be fitted. "After all, the old you and her had quite a lot in common. I suspect she would have liked you far less after we were actually married, though. That is, if she lived long."

Sirius and James shared an unreadable look, and Samantha was forcefully reminded of the conversation she overheard between the two of them before the event. Shaking her head as Madam Malkin worked, she reminded herself that she was not that girl anymore, and that she wouldn't kill her husband's parents, no matter how awful they were.

It didn't take as long as Samantha would have thought for James and Sirius to get their school robes, and Samantha a pair of sapphire dress robes. Magic was a wonderful thing.

Their next stop was an apothecary to pick up the Potions ingredients they were running low on. James was her partner, so he helped Samantha with her purchases, as she had no idea what she was doing. There they met up with Peter, who was helping his mother buy a few scoops of beetle eyes. As soon as they left the apothecary, the kids parted from their mothers, hitting the ice cream parlor before heading all the way down the alley to Gambol and Japes, the joke shop, where they found Remus, just crossing the street from a junk shop, his face light and carefree until he spotted them. As soon as he saw Samantha, his face fell and he greeted them less than enthusiastically, which made Samantha feel incredibly guilty.

They worked their way through the aisles of the joke shop, trying to find anything Sirius and James "hadn't seen before," which was quite an effort. They were joke shop experts. If they hadn't seen it, they'd seen something enough like it that it wasn't worth their energy. And even if they hadn't seen it before or seen something like it, if between the four Marauders they could figure out how it worked by the time they had each finished reading the label, it wasn't worth their time. After combing the entire shop, they had to admit defeat. Nothing in Gambol and Japes was up to the high standards of the Marauders.

They wandered back up the street to Flourish and Blotts, where they met Mrs. Potter, who had an ice cream for each of them and was just about to go inside and purchase their books for them. This was, apparently, a tradition. Samantha was incredibly thankful that she liked strawberry ice cream in every dimension. She was worried the ice cream flavors would be like the jelly bean flavors.

The five teenagers sat in the Alley, eating ice cream, soaking up the sun, people-watching, and laughing at the world. Samantha mostly watched Remus. He certainly wasn't over everything that had happened. Any time their eyes met, he stiffened, gave her a fake smile, and looked down at his feet as though he couldn't bear to meet her gaze, as if her very eyes were breaking his heart. Remus was pretty good at putting on a brave face, she had to admit, but it made it difficult for Samantha to tell if he'd healed at all, or if he was just pretending, for the sake of the group. How much did he know or suspect about what she had been doing since he left? Or was it only pain he was hiding, and not some sort of knowledge?

Before long, Mrs. Potter was back, and they bid Peter and Remus goodbye, carrying their things out to the Leaky Cauldron where they Flooed back to the Potter Manor. As soon as Sirius set all their things on the kitchen table, he pulled her close and caught her lips in a passionate kiss. Samantha felt her knees weakening and she leaned in to him, grasping his shoulders for support.

"All right, all right, I understand that it was a long, hard day with limited physical contact," said Mrs. Potter dryly, "but I don't recall ever giving either of you two permission to snog each other's brains out in the middle of my kitchen. As far as I'm concerned, this room is a family-friendly zone."

"And that doesn't mean my brother gets to snog my sister," said James with a smirk. "That's not the definition of 'family-friendly' to which she was referring."

Sirius seemed to be ignoring them, wrapping his arms tightly around Samantha's waist. She tried to pull free, as she had clearly been asked to do, but Sirius backed her against the wall, put his hands on her ass and hoisted her up so that she had no choice but to wrap her legs around his waist to keep from falling. Then, lips still attached, he carried her out of the kitchen, down the hall, and off toward his bedroom. As they went, Samantha heard Mrs. Potter said, "Well, at least they're not in the kitchen."

His lips didn't leave hers until he allowed her to fall on her back on his bed, sitting down beside her, kicking off his shoes, and scooting back on his bed. He smiled at her as she moved to rest her head in his lap, and he petted her hair gently, smiling radiantly down at her.

"Well, that should get James off our backs for a while," he muttered, running his fingertips lightly across her scalp. She shivered. It felt incredibly good.

"I've missed you," she whispered, nuzzling her face into his stomach muscles, which constricted slightly when he chuckled.

"We've been together all day, love."

"It's not the same," she sighed. "We've been together with everybody else, with–"

" – Remus?"

Samantha nodded into his stomach, allowing him to sigh and run his fingers along the side of her face lovingly.

"Why can't we just stay like this forever?" she sighed, sitting up slightly and looking up at his face. "Why can't we just be alone together all the time, without a war and sham engagements and hurting other people?"

Sirius ran his thumb gently along her bottom lip and gave a wistful sort of smile.

"Sami, if there was any way I could stop the war and the engagement and the hurt, I would do it. If it made sense for us to run away together and leave all the rest of it behind, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd follow wherever you wanted to go. But we just can't, love, and you know it."

"Yes, I know," sighed Samantha, kissing his cheek sweetly, "but it was a lovely thought."

He smirked and leaned back on the pillows, pulling her body on top of his and snuggling his nose near her ear. It tickled slightly, but she liked the way it felt, laying like that, their bodies melding perfectly together as he held her tight against his chest. She leaned back into him, playing with his fingers where they were laced around her waist.

"What are we going to do when we get back to school?" she whispered, watching his fingers tremble as she ran her own across them.

"We have to keep things quiet for a while," he muttered. "Nobody outside the Marauders can know. It's up to you whether you want Peter or Remus to find out. Personally, I think until after you're seventeen and properly disowned, it's best to keep it among family."

His words hit her strangely. Family. He didn't mean the people who were her parents, he meant himself and the Potters. Samantha pondered that thought and realized Sirius was right. The people who lived in this manor were the closest thing to family she had since she had left her previous life. They cared about her, went out of their way for her well-being, and protected her.

"I think that's a great idea," she muttered, "as long as James can keep his fat mouth shut to the others."

Sirius laughed, but he told her that wouldn't be a problem. They stayed like that until dinner, curled up against each other, occasionally sharing slow, sweet kisses, exploring each other in the most innocent of ways. Samantha wondered if anyone had ever seen this side of Sirius before, this sweet, nurturing, unassuming, gentle side that she had grown to love so much.

Love.

Was she falling in love with him? The Potters seemed to think so. They talked as if it was the love of the ages. She could tell Mr. and Mrs. Potter were very much in love, just as she had known that her parents from her other life were incredibly in love, but she had no idea how to recognize the feeling for oneself. Maybe that was what truly was growing between herself and Sirius Black. Before she had time to ponder it thoroughly or say a word aloud, however, James called from the hall that dinner was ready, and the pair smoothed their hair, adjusted their clothes and walked hand in hand down to dinner.

That night, as Samantha crawled into bed, she thought about how soon she would have to return to school, how few lazy days with Sirius and James she had left, and how much homework they had to help her with before they returned. The hardest part about homework was getting Sirius not to do the whole thing for her. He didn't seem to understand that she would have to know what she was doing to survive N.E.W.T. level work and that she, unlike him, didn't know it all already.

She hadn't seen Lily since the train ride back, and her contact with Peter and Remus had been slim. She expected as much from Remus after how things had gone, but she had hoped to see more of Lily and Peter, at the very least. It turned out Peter had an overprotective mother and Lily absolutely refused to go anywhere near the place James Potter lived, although she wrote letters almost every day.

There was a soft knock at the door and before she could invite the person in, the door opened ever-so-slightly, Sirius's face grinning at her.

"I couldn't sleep, Sami. Can I come in? I promise to be on my best behavior."

Samantha snorted and motioned for him to come in. As he slipped inside and closed the door silently behind him she hissed, "That promise means, nothing, you realize. Your best behavior isn't very good."

He settled himself beside her, on top of the sheets.

"I promise," he breathed, nuzzling his face into her neck. "I just wanted to be with you. I won't be able to do this at school and I want to have as much Sami time as possible."

She giggled, allowing him to wrap his arms around her. There were goose bumps visible on his skin in the pale sliver of moonlight falling through the window. With a sigh, she began pulling the blankets from under him, pulling them over his body and wrapping them tightly in the sheets. His eyes widened with surprise.

"Well, I wasn't going to let you freeze, Sirius," she teased, running her finger down his chest. He shivered.

"Oh, Sami," he groaned, "please, don't, or I'll break my good behavior vow. It's bad enough James is going to walk in tomorrow morning and find us curled up under your blankets. We don't want him to find us curled up under your blankets without clothes."

"Maybe Mrs. Potter will find us," she said with a little giggle.

"Likely," he said dryly. He raked his fingers gently through her hair. "Why do you call her that?"

"Mrs. Potter?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it's her name," she said softly. "What am I supposed to call her?"

"Mum. We all called her Mum. Sometimes, you'd even slip up in front of your mother and it drove the woman crazy that you liked Mum more than her. Everybody likes Mum."

"She's a wonderful person," whispered Samantha, "but she's not my mum."

"She's not mine either," said Sirius, "but she's the closet thing either of us has got. And she would never say it, but I can tell she misses it when you call her that. The first time you called her 'Mrs. Potter' she flinched a little bit, like she'd be slapped in the face. I'm not saying you have to call her Mum if you don't want to, but it's something to think about."

They fell asleep curled up in each other's arms, his breath gently tickling her neck.